Music

Apollon Musagète Quartett

One year ago, the Apollon Musagete Quartett performed at BOZAR in the framework of BozarSundays, with the programme "Rising Stars".The Quartet is back in Belgium, this time at the Handelsbeurs in Ghent, and will demonstrate once more that it is one of the most brilliant and promising chamber music quartets of its generation.

The Apollon Musagete Quartet was founded in Vienna in 2006 by four Poles: Paweł Zalejski (violin), Bartosz Zachłod (violin), Piotr Szumiel (viola) and Piotr Skweres (cello). The group’s unusual name is an homage to a ballet by Igor Stravinsky dating from 1927/28 in which the god Apollon dances with three muses who symbolise, in turn, poetry, rhetoric and dance. Taking their cue from this god and ‘conductor of muses’, the Apollon Musagete Quartet aims to bring together all art forms. In 2008, the group’s reputation was enhanced by the award of a first prize and three special prizes at the Munich ARD International Music Competition. This prize was yet another to add to an already impressive trophy cabinet, containing prizes won primarily in Austria and Italy, where they performed to great success. The group also played at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.The group finds its musical inspiration not just in the works which it plays, but also in the many collaborators with whom it so enjoys playing. The musicians with whom the group has played to date include: Peter Cropper, Anner Bylsma, Giulano Carmignola and Ferenz Rados.In Poland, the quartet has been aided by the award of a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.The first disc by the Apollon Musagete Quartet was released by OEHMS Classics in 2009. It includes works by Haydn, Szymanowski and Brahms.